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More Colorado Pow

Bookmark and Share            By Lou

This is getting ridiculous. I’ve lost count of how many days I’ve skied this season, and most have been backcountry powder. What a blessing after some thin winters here in Colorado. Yesterday we headed up to the Marble area and checked out a new zone.

Dynafit backcountry skiing.
Things were a bit iffy as we blundered to a steep area where the billy goating lost much of our vertical, but we got some turns in nonetheless. We’ll probably get in a few more days before leaving for Europe, but the focus now is on wrapping up the last of our gear testing, then packing our bags!

We got a few good turns in near the top of our line, but there was too much climbing and not enough skiing. Good to do some exploring though. I was talking to a friend the other day who was lamenting our lack of moderately angled timbered terrain that would yield safer powder skiing. This mission was intended to find a bit of that, but the land was too steep. I’ve got another zone in mind we’ll check out in a few days. Trying to branch out from the usual haunts.

Posted by Lou on March 7, 2008 | Filed Under Trip Reports 

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Comments

19 Responses to “More Colorado Pow”

  1. powderjunky March 7th, 2008 10:17 am

    Its been such a great winter! Hurray Snow!!!

  2. Chris March 7th, 2008 10:52 am

    Doesn’t Louie ever have to go to school?

  3. Lou March 7th, 2008 12:08 pm

    Should I blog a few photos of him doing math ? He arranged a fairly flexible sched for his senior year, and he’s been having a great time! Deal was the grades had to stay at a certain reasonable level, and that’s been holding, though by fingernails at times. Thing is, he’d just be sitting at school dreaming about skiing if he wasn’t doing it, so might as well get him out there. Louie? You got anything to add?

  4. carl March 7th, 2008 12:58 pm

    Pretty funny Chris, I came on here just to ask the same question. I’m going to have talk with his teachers…… Seriously Louie.

  5. Chad March 7th, 2008 1:23 pm

    Hilarious!!!!! I was just going to ask the same of Louie.

    I’m just jealous.

  6. Lou March 7th, 2008 2:15 pm

    So, how did you guys get time to ski when you were in highschool?

  7. Shane March 7th, 2008 2:50 pm

    About 2x a week. Once after school with the ski club and again on the weekends. It wasn’t until college that I started REALLY getting out a lot. I imagine Louie will at least triple his ski time once he enrolls.

    By the way, who is paying for Louie’s college?

  8. Chris March 7th, 2008 3:22 pm

    When you grow up in the midwest night skiing is king and backcountry skiing is just something you dream that you’ll get the opportunity to do someday. Plus, I didn’t mean anything by comment other than a good-natured jab. Like other people mentioned, I’m just jealous…

  9. Pundy March 7th, 2008 4:46 pm

    I attended a ski school and now coach at one. It’s an amazing way to do school. Ski every day and get a topnotch education! Take a look at the big mountain program at http://www.gocva.com!

  10. Lou March 7th, 2008 4:46 pm

    Chris, all good, we’re getting a chuckle out of it here.

  11. carl March 7th, 2008 4:54 pm

    I grew up in the midwest. I enjoyed all two hundred and thirty feet of vertical at Ski Snowstar in Andalusia, Illinois after school under the lights until closing time at 9pm!

  12. GeorgeT March 7th, 2008 5:07 pm

    How do I get Louie’s deal?
    signed…”high school seniors for powder”
    signed…”middle-aged ski bums for powder”
    etc, etc, etc,

    How do I get adopted?
    signed…” high school juniors for powder”

  13. carl March 7th, 2008 6:19 pm

    P.S.
    I can count on one finger the number of days that I had at Ski Snowstar that the snow looked fluffy like in Louie’s casual day at Marble in today’s photo. ….and I’m pretty sure I didn’t know what to do.

    I remember that one day…..my brother (who taught me how to ski) hiked to the other side of the ravine (he actually topped-out in a corn field on the other side of the ski area) and skied down with another ski school maverick. I guess that we are all aspiring to a true backcountry experience, no matter how humble your beginnings.

  14. Lou March 7th, 2008 6:29 pm

    Corn field? That would make some good blogging — I think…

  15. Louie March 7th, 2008 7:09 pm

    Corn fields!! Maybe we should go to Illinois instead of europe.

  16. CJ March 7th, 2008 8:25 pm

    As a kid in the Grand Valley, my HS senior year was similarly “lightly structured.” Don’t knock typing class, I’m using those skills now! We were offered Highlands season passes for $50. Yes, for the season.

    My Dad did the same as a kid, he’d scour the hills for Stein and spend the day shadowing him. It really shows, he’s a beautiful skier and to this day he totally out-swaggers me on a pay-to-play slope. He was just visiting and, after remembering him spraying silicon all over his polyester socks to get into his old rear-entry Hansons (sp?), I showed him how easily my Scarpas slid onto my feet. That was fun. I gotta go ski with my Dad.

  17. BJ Sbarra March 10th, 2008 9:02 am

    I wondered the same thing recently (about Louie and school) as we were leaving marble around noon and up comes the entire Dawson family! I was assured Louie has a good schedule and isn’t just ditching. Way to get after it guys!

  18. BillL March 11th, 2008 11:47 am

    “I’ve lost count of how many days I’ve skied this season…”

    A couple of the sailing blogs I read have installed a counter in the right column of their front page. Tillerman has a goal of 100 days of sailing this year and at the mid February had six days.

  19. Lou January 4th, 2009 3:31 pm

    I’ve thought about a counter, but it seems so mechanical. More fun just to ski a ton of days and not get obsessed with the exact number as they blend with each other in a perfect cloud of white crystalline goodness. Zen?

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Welcome to Louis (Lou) Dawson's backcountry skiing information and opinion website. Lou's passion for the past forty years has been alpinism, climbing, mountaineering and skiing -- along with all manner of outdoor recreation. He has authored numerous books and articles about backcountry skiing and is well known as the first person to ski down all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks, otherwise known as the Fourteeners! Books and free back country information here, and tons of Randonnee rando telemark info.

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